Research Pays Off! Found a Virgin, Colonial Cellar Hole!!

[coinman123]

Hey guys, first real metal detecting trip this year! I did a lot of research over the past couple weeks to find places to metal detect this year. I spent most of my time looking a LiDAR of public wooded spots, after realizing that almost every single cellar hole on public land that appears on any map has already been heavily hit around here. I was pretty happy to find a very clear looking rectangular shaped impression on the LiDAR, with a 150 by 150 foot animal pen right behind it. The location of the cellar hole appeared on no maps dating back to the 1850's, which makes me think it was gone before any of maps were made of that town. I drove out 25 minutes to the location, walked in the woods for half an hour, a large portion of it off-trail. I noticed fresh footprint in the snow going down the trail, and off of it, but not coming back down the trail, which made me assume whoever made those footprints was still in the woods. I later heard very close by gunshots, probably from the same, and I was wearing a brown jacket. I then noticed a very faint cart trail going through the woods, the only way I could notice it was because of their being no snow in what looked like extremely ruts, spaced out in the right distance for an old cart. There was a raised looking area with more snow in between the slightly deeper ruts. I followed the trail through a break in a stone wall, and then to the old animal pen. I found an opening in the animal pen, turned off my gps, and found a clear cellar hole right where the LiDAR said it would be! Anyways, I only had around 20 minutes at the cellar hole, before I had to go home and run errands. My metal detector was only at one bar too, with the same batteries from last year. There was almost no trash anywhere either. Anyways, I quickly found two buttons, a musketball and a hand forged hoe head with almost no corrosion (I can even see where the two pieces of metal were joined), which makes me think that this place is definitely worth returning to! I love it when research pays off, and everything ends up being as I hoped! Who knows what else may be at this places, I hope to go back with my parents who now enjoy metal detecting (who I called, and they said want to come check out the place) on Saturday and spend the whole day there.

Forgot to take photo of hoe head and musket ball.

 

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[basque-man]

looks like your in the right spot for some great finds! Keep up posted!!

 

[vpnavy]

 

[DetectorMoe]

All I can say go pound that spot.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Good luck at the new spot!

 

[Trezurehunter]

Sounds like a good one. Keep hitting that place.

 

[pepperj]

So your hunch payed off, congrats on getting out and actually seeing if there was what you suspected was there. Well done on the first finds from the exploration of the site, and all the best for the upcoming family hunt.

 

[washingtonian]

Nice job on the research and good luck out there.

 

[grasshopper]

Great research. I've worked with lidar data a lot in college and at my current job and it's definitely useful in finding places to hunt. How are you using it? Do you have access to a viewer for your area or are you bringing it into GIS?

 

[against the wind]

Great research. Glad you were able to pinpoint the cellar hole. Excellent confirmation finds.
Good luck on your return trips.

 

[coinman123]

Great research. I've worked with lidar data a lot in college and at my current job and it's definitely useful in finding places to hunt. How are you using it? Do you have access to a viewer for your area or are you bringing it into GIS?

Thanks Grasshopper! The university has a public lidar database on their website. From there I download files for whichever area of land I need, and bring it in FugroViewer, a program that is able to read the data files. From there, it is pretty easy to process them and cellar holes and stone walls are pretty clearly seen. The only problem is that if a house didn't have a cellar, the cellar was filled in, or it was a cabin, there is no way to tell it is there when looking at lidar.

 

[grasshopper]

Thanks Grasshopper! The university has a public lidar database on their website. From there I download files for whichever area of land I need, and bring it in FugroViewer, a program that is able to read the data files. From there, it is pretty easy to process them and cellar holes and stone walls are pretty clearly seen. The only problem is that if a house didn't have a cellar, the cellar was filled in, or it was a cabin, there is no way to tell it is there when looking at lidar.

Very nice. We are lucky that this fine-resolution data is becoming more readily available. It's truly a great tool that most people don't know about

 

[coinman123]

Very nice. We are lucky that this fine-resolution data is becoming more readily available. It's truly a great tool that most people don't know about

Agreed! In my old county, before I moved last year, the resolution was 2 meters. Now in my new county it has greatly improved and is .5 meters, or 1.5 feet! I think it is great having such precise mapping technology in this age. Very helpful in finding cellar holes that are far off the trail and are on none of the old maps, considering that most cellar holes that are easy to find around here have been heavily hunted since the 1970's!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

You're off to a good start. But remember: East coast guys have an agreed up forum handicap. In order to qualify for "today's find", any coin you find has to be older than 1800. After all, what's fair is fair.

 

[WaterScoop]

Congratulations on The payoff to your hard work!

So far this is only in my dreams, looking forward to hitting one as well

 

[treblehunter]

Nice work on finding your new site, GL with your future hunts. My neck of the woods is in the densest state in the union. All my cellar holes I have found have also been pounded since the 70's My only hope is private property which in the past has paid off with great finds.

 

[Truth]

You’ll feed off that spot for a while! Congratulations on your finds.

 

[creade]

Congrats on finding new sites with the lidar! I can’t figure it out,it’s a great tool. Go pound that site!

 

[Joe hunter]

Very nice it’s great when research pays off.

 

[Scrappy]

Excellent work finding the cellar. How do you suppose it’s virgin from 3 items? I’m not trying to hassle, I’m simply curious.

Either way, good luck hunting with the folks man. I hope you find a TON!